Multiverse
by Azukin
Summary: A series of independent stories featuring Kara and Lena through their various incarnations in Multiverse.


Earth-38 features Kara and Lena from my previous fic ('You are a hard soul to save'), but you won't need to read it to understand this chapter.

Genre: angst / fluff

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 **Earth-38. So no one says I never sang of flowers.**

 **.**

 _i have a life to garden._

 _a multiverse to wake from sleep._

 _– giants_

 **Nayyirah Waheed, nejma.**

 **.**

Once in your life, the truth struck you like lightning on a barren land – sudden, definitive, burning a wound in your depths. You were given a name, and, back then, you were not yet ready – not yet rotten – to realize you were given a curse. You could claim a lot of things in life – it wasn't a secret that your name and your intellect could get you through anything – but you were denied a simple thing, which, to be honest, wasn't really that simple, but you were still young and the world wasn't supposed to be that much convoluted at your age.

Except, it was.

You get it though, some people had it much worse than you, and they would say your life wasn't even slightly tragic. There was no misfortune in inheriting wealth and power and the promises of a future where you would bend the will of any men who defied you. There was no tragedy in keeping a secret to yourself – words of heresy in your prayers at night – a bargain in which you'd offer all that you had.

All you ever wanted was a family. A real one. But you were thirteen and you were already capable to discern illusions from reality.

In this universe, you'd always carry some sadness.

 **. .**

You never really cared that much about loneliness, because, at some point – probably when you realized your mother, your real one, was withering and dying – you acknowledged it as part of you, but still, there were particular nights you were haunted by a cry, a demon in your chest. So you'd open the window – like you did on that winter in Kansas – and breathe until there was ice in your lungs.

Which helped for some time, but you were seventeen when the wailing became unbearable and your body wouldn't freeze. So you searched for ways to burn it. You wonder what your tutors would say if they ever caught you – the scene of two bodies lusting for release, setting each other on fire – a sweet profanity on the sacred grounds of the school. Her kisses were bitter on your lips turned to cinders.

Consumed, you'd continue to burn, tasting the bitter smoke that left your lungs. One night, you fell asleep beside her – you still wonder how you could with both your bodies that cold – but you woke up gasping for air, one name, long forgotten, stuck in your throat.

In your dream, you'd bring a girl flowers every day.

. .

They say time heals everything and you weren't really sure about the healing aspect – some trauma are too deep, too lively, to be ever repaired –, but you really wanted to believe that concept. Eventually, your pain indeed subsided and you could sleep at night. You convinced yourself you had matured, but the truth was you had roughened, which didn't matter in the end, because, anyhow, you were resilient and you were moving on, even after being hurt by other important things, like the time Lex scared you for real, or when your mother tried to kill you for the first time.

There were still nights, however, when the world was too silent – too indifferent – you could hear the cries of your pitiful heart, and no matter your protests, it would continue to twist, trying really hard to set itself free, aching for someone to belong to. And you would refuse to sleep in those nights, because you knew it could get worse – nightmares would follow you through the breaches of your soul.

There was this one time, until this day you can't tell if you were dreaming or hallucinating, but the visions would be forever engraved in your mind – an omen of what awaited for you in one future apart.

On the shadows of that night, you saved Lex, but you perished on the flames.

. .

"You okay?" You hear that soft voice and, although you've been together for a while, it still surprises you a bit in a good way – like you always get this feeling of awe for she's here beside you at the darkest hours.

You remember the first night she stayed, how her voice got you scared when you were half-asleep, because never in your dreams you had someone you loved so dearly during that vulnerable moment between sleep and awake. And you also remember her expression, that lovely look in her eyes, trying really hard to assess whether you were hurt or why you were scared. And when realization dawned on her – that you were so used to, well, being alone – the way she so expressively cared about you, her fingers running through your hair, sent sparks through your body.

Kara still has a slightly worried expression when you shift your body to face her.

"Yeah." It probably doesn't sound so convincing, because you can still see some frown lines, which you trace with your fingertips. Kara seems to relax with your touch.

"I really am." You whisper, while tracing her cheeks, her jaw. "I'm happy you are here."

You watch her light up and you kiss her on the edge of a smile.

In one timeline, you missed your chance to give yourself to her.

. .

You wake up to a golden morning and a light breeze that blows the curtains, casting moving shadows over your bed. Kara sleeps soundly beside you, and it's adorable how everything about this moment is quiet and simple and all you ever needed. It makes you think you never thought you would be capable of so much happiness – and it crosses your mind, a vague remembrance of a past when you thought you'd always be somewhat sad, but that's about it, because Kara shifts a bit, and soon her blue eyes are staring gently at you.

"Good morning." You say, your voice still raw in that early morning and Kara smiles timidly – she knows you've been watching her in her sleep –, but she also greets you with a kiss, before answering a quiet 'morning'.

It is funny how words – something you value more than others imagine – aren't really that important with Kara. Right now, you just lay beside her, staring in each other's eyes and you don't need words to share proofs of devotion and commitment. You have to confess moments like this are so intimate, it was almost embarrassing in the beginning – you felt stripped of every piece of clothing and every layer of your skin, exposing your heart, your bruised self, to another being – and you can only be grateful that, in this life, the one to see it should be Kara.

"What are you thinking of?"

"I've been thinking there are all these universes out there, and I'm glad I belong in this one." Yeah, it sounds a bit pathetic and you're quite embarrassed, but it's the truth, and maybe being able to speak whatever is in your mind – this freedom and intimacy you never expected to share with anyone – is what makes Kara your sanctuary.

"Crazy, isn't it?" Kara softly murmurs. "To think about all the possibilities."

And you do. You love Kara and you can only thank whatever ruler that ordered this world would have both of you right – a fate you still question you deserve. You try to imagine all those timelines you never met Kara – but searched for her presence in every corner, in every desert; all those universes you met her on a battlefield, on different and irreconcilable sides, where you wished maybe just for a second to stop a senseless war and give her a moment of peace. And how many times you have crossed paths to part ways not too long, leaving you to wonder in which universe you end up together, and it's this one.

"I'm trying to imagine the most bizarre scenario that gets us together." Kara says and by her look you know she is seriously considering it, which makes you chuckle – and you have your eyes closed in your laugh, so you don't see it, but Kara steals a glance at you with a tender smile.

"I'd like the scenario to have potstickers…" But you don't let her finish. You kiss Kara fully and, at first, she seems disappointed her story got interrupted, but she quickly dismisses it, trying really hard to kiss you back accordingly, but failing to do so with a big smile.

Yes, it's a world of wonders and you can never be sure what awaits for you, but you know, for a certainty – in a way only known by those fated to cross paths and sent each other reeling off balance – should life make a turn and break you apart, you will deny time and space and the code in the stars.

In this universe, you always wake with her kiss.

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 **Afterwords:** it's so refreshing to write something different after some time. I know the style changed drastically and this was short (I just wanted it to be an intro for the next fics tbh), so the first spin-off may not have been what those who read my first fic expected. But I'll write other Earth-38 stories in the future. Also, I really, really, tried to make it totally fluff, but ugh there's something about how perfect fluff fics are that makes me bored.

About **'Multiverse':** just a series of independent stories featuring Kara and Lena in alternate universes. The genres and the styles of each one-shot will probably vary according to my mood, but I'll try to connect them somehow and keep the general 'feeling' of this chapter. Also, although I already have some universes planned, I may consider prompts in the future.


End file.
